Cringe

Bibliographic Data

ID6451927
AuthorsThomas J Spiegel (0000-0002-7962-3838, University of Potsdam, corresponding author)
Year2023
Volume39
Issue3
Pages229-240
Publication date2023-10-30
Open AccessNo
TypeARTICLE
VenueSocial Epistemology (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0269-1728 • E-ISSN: 1464-5297
PublisherTaylor & Francis (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1080/02691728.2023.2268588
OpenAlexW4388045113
LanguageEN
Citations received2
References cited29

While shame and embarrassment have received significant attention in philosophy and psychology, cringe (also sometimes called ‘vicarious embarrassment’ and ‘vicarious shame’) has received little thought. This is surprising as the relatively new genre of cringe comedy has seen a meteoric rise since the early 2000s. In this paper, I aim to offer a novel characterization of cringe as a hostile social emotion which turns out to be closer to disgust and horror than to shame or embarrassment, thus disclosing ‘vicarious shame’ and ‘vicarious embarrassment’ to be misnomers. The closing part offers an explanation as to why cringe and cringe comedy in particular have become recently more relevant: cringe allows one to express hostility and disgust (often at other forms of life) in a nonviolent manner which fits perfectly well within the permissible boundaries of tolerance set up in liberal Western democracies since the second half of the 20th century

Anger · Art · Comedy · Disgust · Embarrassment · Humiliation · Literature · Psychoanalysis · Shame · Emotions and Moral Behavior · Humor Studies and Applications · Psychology · Psychology of Moral and Emotional Judgment · Social Psychology

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